The Evolution of the Packaging Industry: From Glass Pots to Wooden Lacquer Boxes
The growth of packaging is indistinguishably connected to food. In early human era or history, such as in the Stone Age, food was consumed instantly and on the spot. But the requirement to carry food caused people to utilize materials and elements such as leaves, animal skins, nuts or gourds. The “packaging” was originated in Egypt around 3,500 decades ago.
The Ancient Egyptians (around 1500 B.C.) were the pioneers to “industrialize” a food/water vessel by creating glass water pots. They were colored too, and it wouldn’t be another 500 years until glassmakers could make clear or transparent glass. The Egyptians invented glass blowing techniques and technology.
The Ancient Chinese about 200 B.C, started using treated mulberry bark to carry food. This “innovation” developed in the later centuries towards papermaking (drawing out cellulose fibres from plants). Paper is the earliest and oldest illustration versatile packaging, and apparently, it was applied to package items and things, for example, medicine and tea packets.
The Middle ages from 5th to the 15th Century witnessed Wooden Barrels’ or vessels usage and wooden boxes to store Rum, nuts and freshwater.
The Industrial Era (1760-1840)
There was a great increase in the mass consumption of new products in the industrial age. For this reason, there was an immense need to develop various packages.
1795 Napoleon: Canned Food
To take care of the enormous French armed force while Napoleon was caught up with vanquishing the world, he declared a prize of 12000 Francs for any individual who could invent and produce packaging that could protect food. Nicholas Appert supposedly earned the title of “Father of Canning” required 15 years and asserted the prize money. He steamed and secured the food in impenetrable air-tight glass holders in 1805.
In 1810, British creator Peter Durand authorized the use of iron cans or tin-covered containers to protect food.
In 1817, silk farmers shipped moths and eggs from Japan to Europe with the first cardboard packets.
1852 Packaging’s future is unlocked by Paper Bag.
The Victorians didn’t have the foggiest idea about the delight of eating Fruity Pebbles while gazing at the back of a cereal box. However, they did create the first cardboard box in 1817. A more slender form of this, cardboard was used for cereal boxes. This development was followed in the blink of an eye by the first commercial production of paper bags in England in 1844. Throughout the Atlantic in 1852, American Francis Wolle created the bag-making machine, which finally covered the way for glued paper bags (the type we use in our current days) and the growth (as we’ll see) of the first semi-flexible packaging.
1879 The Brooklyn Biscuit Connection
Before Brooklyn was great, and it was an important production hub. In the 1870s, a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag creator called Robert Gair unintentionally created or innovated the first self-made carton or box (a machine accident caused the bag to be cut), which turned into the world’s first semi-flexible packaging. Also these days, collapsible containers or boxes are the backbones for the dry, processed food business. The first brand to utilise the collapsible containers or boxes was the National Biscuit Company (NABISCO). Up to that point, biscuits/cookies were sold unpackaged in barrels or containers. They used the containers or cartons to package their Uneeda brand biscuits. One of Gair’s children recommended the name, who apparently told NABISCO, “you need a name.” The teaching: a great brand is usually simple.
1906 The Corn Flakes Cardboard Cure
Americans enjoy their cereal in cardboard boxes. This choice might be accredited to William Kellogg, who in 1906 started utilising cardboard for cereal containers or cartons. William and his brother Dr John Kellogg operated a nursing home in Michigan and created Corn Flakes as a feature of a wellbeing routine for their patients. However, the original Corn Flakes packaging varied profoundly from what we know today. At first, Kellogg covered the cereal boxes with waxed paper (purchasing copy printed on the surface), leaving the cereal “loose” or “free” within the box. The heat-sealed bag was intended to make his item stick out. His child, John L. Kellogg, developed the method, so the bag was inside the box.
1908 Development of Cellophane
Jacques E. Brandenberger, a Swiss chemist, is renowned for creating cellophane after he chose to produce a fabric that would neither absorb nor consume liquids. His original formula was developed using wood cellulose. In 1912, Brandenberger made a machine to produce cellophane film or coverings.
Cellophane significantly influenced the packaging industry, as its transparency or clarity made it the material of choice for wrapping or covering in the 1950s and 1960s. Cellophane further established the foundations for plastic packaging in the later years.
A deep freeze for peas In the 19th century and later, Clarence Birdseye made progress on the following. Birdseye is the “father of frozen food” who discovered the Inuit tribe’s method of quick freezing food while he was operating in northern Canada. Although frozen food packaging did not yet exist in the 1920s, Birdseye identified that this new packaging must be waterproof and must be airtight, in addition to being used with waterproof ink. He tried to use cellophane, but it was not yet waterproof. Birdseye eventually turned to DuPont, who invented a waterproof variant of cellophane.
1933 Innovation of the Saran Wrap
In 1933, Ralph Wiley mistakenly discovered the invention of polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC), which is made of saran resins and films. Wiley was a Dow Chemical laboratory worker, who could wash the glassware of the laboratory. One night, Wiley stumbled across a bottle he couldn’t clean up. In the beginning, the material was called eonite, but Dow Chemical’s researchers turned it into Saran and then transformed it into a dark green film. In order to protect against the conditions, the early Version was sprayed onto military aircraft. Researchers then eliminated the saran’s green colour, which enabled it to be accepted after World War II as a food packaging commodity.
Attaching Tabs on Aluminum Cans The first beverage can (tinned steel) was invented by Krueger Beer in 1935.
Up to that point, soft drinks were just accessible in glass bottles. Sodas shortly followed beer in cans, but there was no “pop tab” in the past years. Customers had to make use a “church key” opener to pierce the top. In 1959 the beverage can receive its modern upgrade during Coors launch of the aluminium can (less expensive than tin). Still, the difficulty of piercing it continued. Besides, in ’59, a farm boy called ErmalFraze end up with a Schlitz and no church-key. Ultimately, he had the motivation for the pop-up tab, and the rest is history.
The Revolution of Plastic Packaging – Plastic
Plastic is our most recent packaging material. Owere discovered different plastic substances and elements in the 19th century, although they were not prepared to serve as packaging. It was not until the development of cellophane in 1908 that plastic packaging was established. In 1946 an underarm deodorant appeared in a spray bottle called “Stopette. That was one of the first commercial bottles of plastic. Decades later, PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) water bottles developed in 1977 and shortly became the mainstream container for plastic bottles (strong, non-toxic and 100 per cent recyclable)
